Warning: spoilers are ahead for Episode 6 of Law & Order Season 24, called "Time Will Tell."
Law & Order continued its Season 24 trend of bringing in guest stars who are well known from other projects, and Stranger Things' Cara Buono played a mom who may or may not be a murderer. Best known for her role in the Netflix series, she arrived in Season 24 just one day after the episode titles were revealed for Stranger Things Season 5, set to debut in the 2025 TV premiere schedule. When I started digging into Buono's long list of credits, I was surprised to see that she has appeared as six different characters from Dick Wolf's Law & Order franchise over the past 30 years.
In the latest episode of Law & Order in the 2024 TV premiere schedule, Cara Buono played Lisa Dumont, the mom of a teen with anxiety who claimed to have murdered the dean of a swanky school who refused to accommodate her daughter's needs due to her status as a scholarship student. While Nolan and others strongly suspected that she was just taking the fall for her daughter, it couldn't be proved that Lisa was perjuring herself.
All in all, it took me a minute to recognize Cara Buono as Lisa Dumont, because I'm so used to seeing the actress wearing the height of '80s fashion – complete with the hair and makeup of the era – with my Netflix subscription. She clearly doesn't need a Demogorgon or nefarious government agents to play a protective mom! She has played plenty of other Law & Order characters beyond just Lisa. Check out her list of Dick Wolf credits:
- Law & Order Season 6 - Shelly Taggert (1996)
- Law & Order Season 9 - Alice Simonelli (1998)
- Law & Order: Criminal Intent Season 1 - Charlotte Fielding (2002)
- Law & Order Season 17 - Attorney Shannon (2007)
- Law & Order: SVU Season 9 - Rachel Zelinsky (2008)
- Law & Order Season 24 - Lisa Dumont (2024)
For a franchise running for as long as Law & Order and spanning as many shows, there are plenty of stars who appeared as more than one character. Not many can claim to have played six different characters across three shows between 1996 and 2024! It's not quite the same as last week's episode bringing in an actor who had been killed off Law & Order: SVU back in 2009, but I did a double take when I saw just how many L&O credits that Buono can boast. Katee Sackhoff is another Season 24 guest star who had an earlier credit.
It remains to be seen if the actress will ever add another Law & Order franchise credit to her resume, but it would be fun if she popped up on Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 to complete the current trifecta of shows. That series will return streaming for fans with a Peacock subscription after being moved from NBC.
It's a safe bet that she will be back on Stranger Things for its final season next year as Karen Wheeler, although details are still few and far between. The 2025 release is excellent news, assuming that the new episodes will arrive sooner than December of next year. For now, you can always revisit the first four seasons of Stranger Things streaming on Netflix, or find Cara Buono's appearances in the Law & Order franchise on Peacock.